Electric bond and method of attachment for rail joints



March 29, 1938. E. A. EVERETT ELECTRIC BOND AND METHOD OF ATTACHMENT FOR RAIL JOINTS Filed April 12, 1933,

INK 213R.

RNEY Patented Mar. 29, 1938 PATENT OFFICE ELECTRIC BOND AND METHOD OF ATTACH- MENT FOR RAIL JOINTS Edward A. Everett, Long Island City, N. Y. Application April 12, 1933, Serial No. 665,737

'7 Claims. (Cl. l73280) This invention relates to connectors for electric conductors to railway rails, such asmay be used in the electric bonds for rail joints, and is a continuation, in part, of my co-pending application, Serial No. 641,596, filed November '7, 1932,

now Patent 2,074,379 March 23, 1937.

The objects of the invention are to provide an improved attachment for conductors to rails in which an electric circuit is to be established to the rail. A particular object of the invention is to provide an attachment for a conductor to a bottomed hole in the rail by means of a plug to which the conductor is secured, the plug being expanded, upset or spread where it engages the end of the hole, producing the tightest grip between the plug and the rail at the bottom of the hole. Another object of the invention is to provide an attaching plug for a rail hole in which the hole has a conical end as produced in the ordinary drilling of holes, and the plug is provided with a flat nose which expandsor upsets as it is driven against the conical end of the hole or rail cavity. Another object of the invention is to provide a plug attachment for a rail hole having a conical end and in which the plug has a flat nose softer than the body of the plug, which flat nose is driven against the conical end of the hole. Another object'of the invention is to provide an attachment for-a rail hole having a conical end comprising a terminal with an eye to which the conductor is secured and a fiat nosed plug driven through said eye into the rail hole, and another object is to provide a rail attachment for a conductor that can readily be removed from the rail and replaced.

5 Other objects of the invention will be more particularly understood from the following specification and from the accompanying drawing, in which:

- Fig. 1 is a plan view of an electric bond for 40 bonding rail joints embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view of an eyelet type of terminal with the attaching plug therein;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a combined terminaland plug having a flange construction for retain- 45 ing the conductor in place;

Fig. 4 is a side viewof a terminal having a stranded conductor applied to a sectioned portion of rail having a conical ended hole in which the plug of the terminal is upset or expanded, and 1 50 Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation of a rail and splice bar showing the application of the connector to the head of the rail.

Track, circuits are used on railroads for block signalling purposes and for other purposes and 55 in order to maintain a continuous circuit from rail to rail it is necessary to provide an electric bond'between the abutting ends of the rails so that there may be no interruption in the electric circuit. The rails are subject to expansion and contraction due to variations in temperature and 5 the bond which connects the rail ends must be flexible so as to adjust itself for variations in the distance between the connections. Bonds for this purpose have been applied to the head of the rails located over the top of the splice bars and they 10 have also been located to extend outside the splice bars and connected to the web of the rail. The electric bonds in this invention may be applied either to the head of the rail or to the web of the rail, but in most of the illustrations 15 the application to a short bond for the head of the rail has been used.

As illustrated in the drawing the bond comprises a flexible or stranded conductor which, as shown, is secured at its ends to terminals made in the form of eyelets or grommets, which have a hollow core for receiving the attaching pin and which are provided with flanges to enclose the flexible conductor. The plug may also be made integral with the terminal or suitably se- 25 cured to the conductor.

The eyelet or terminal of the conductor is secured to the rail by a pin or plug which engages the aperture of the eyelet with a driving fit and I which enters a hole in the rail. The rail hole is 30 drilled by the usual twist drill with a conical point which makes a conical ended hole. The plug is hardened on the outer or driving end but has a comparatively soft fiat nose or end which engages the conical bottom of the rail hole in which it is driven and is thereby expanded under the driving force to form its tightest engagement at the bottom of the hole and also to form a seal between the rail and the plug.

In the drawing, II is the flexible conductor which,- as shown in Fig. 1, is laminated; This conductor at one end isattached to the terminal or eyelet l2 and at the opposite end is attached to the eyelet [3. The eyelet comprises a bobbin l6 having a bottom flange l1 and a top flange I8, the latter being provided with an extension l9 which is spun over or otherwise formed to enclose an annular space around the bobbin ii. In the center of each eyelet the plug I4 is inserted,

having the flat face or nose I! which enters the hole in the rail. The flange I9 is deflected as indicated at 22 to provide an outlet for the conductor from the terminal.

One method of connecting the terminal to a bottomed hole in the rail is indicated in Fig. 4

"a tight driving flt between these parts. The holes in which is the rail which is provided with a hole or cavity having a conical end as indicated at 38. The plug II, Fig. 2, is provided with a flat nose at I5 and is hardened with a tapering hardness from the end I4 towards the end I5 so that the body of I 4 is comparatively hard and the nose I5, below the line at, is comparatively soft. When this pin is driven into the conical ended hole 38 the driving force spreads or upsets the soft nose I5 outwardly as indicated in somewhat exaggerated form at I 5a and I5b, Fig.4, while the hardened body of the pin prevents the body from materially expanding. This has the eii'ect of causing the pin or plug to secure its principal grip in the hole at the bottom, thereby improving the connection and insuring a reliable grip in holes of different depth.

It is found in practice that the flat nosed plug with the air pocket at the conical end of the'hole does not have as great a tendency to bounce back" when over driven as in holes where the air pocket is not provided. In order to facilitate the removal of the plugs from the hole by a side blow from the hammer, the diameter of the hole is greater than its depth so that the stout body of the plug is dislodged as a unit. A steel plug, properly'tempered, will spread at the edges I5 but will not flll the space 38, Fig. 4.

The plug and eyelet attachment enables the eyelet to be placed tightly against the rail head while the plug adJusts itself to holes of different depths. -The eyelet is made from light, bendable stock to enclose the conductor and the projecting end of the plug receives the hammer and protects the eyelet from being mutilated when driving or when in use. The outer end of the plug is hardened and tapered so that it will not spread under the hammer and so that it will deflec objects from the side.

It will be noted from Fig. 2 that the-body of the eyelet, or terminal, is cylindrical and the eye of the conductor is also cylindrical to flt the eyelet. The flanges project at right angles from the cylindrical stock and are comparatively light and bendable to enclose the conductor, and one at least is formed integral with the cylindrical body.

The flanges of the terminal have tapering edges which form a rounded, or button like, terminal when installed that is capable of deflecting ob- Jects in its path that maybe trailing from a passing train.

When the attachment shown in Fig. 5 is applied to the ball of the rail, the solid plug fllls the drilled hole as completely as the undrilled portion of the rail, except for the space 38 between the flat nose of the plug and the conical end of the hole. The load sustaining properties of the rail in compression are not materially affected by this type of attachment.

The construction illustrated in Fig. 3 embodies the plug and the terminal in one piece, the flat nosed plug I 50 extending from the body 45 which clamps theconductor 2| by the flanges I 9 as indicated in dotted outline on the drawing. The plug lie is driven into the rail similar to plug I5.

The pin or plug I I has been described as a driving fit in the terminal and in the rail hole. It should be noted that the plug and the eye of the bond are produced in a manufacturing establishment and there is no difliculty in securing that are drilled in the rail are not always uniform and cannot be produced with the same precision as the holes in the eyelets. A reason for this is that drills are not always properly sharpened,

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with the-splice bar 52 and with the terminal ofv the conductor I8 attached thereto by the plug I4 which is driven through the terminal I8 and has its flat nose I5 expanded or upset where the conical end of the rail hole begins. In Figs. 2 and 3 it will be noted from the section, that the conductor 2i is laminated corresponding to II in Fig. 1, while in Fig. 4 the conductor 36 is made in the form of a stranded cable.

The present invention is directed to the method of attaching the conductor to the rail by a bottomed hole in the rail. The type of conductor and the type of terminal used are merely typical of a variety of constructions that may be used for this purpose. For the purpose of the attachment it is merely necessary to secure the conductor to the plug in some satisfactory manner.

, The plug as it is upset in the hole increases its grip and enables the driving force to be increased without increasing the tendency to rebound. In practiceit is found that the plug will spread in the rail hole and change its contour even when the plug is softer than the rail. The tempering of the plug helps to locate the spreading at the soft nose, but untempered plugs can be successfully used provided that they will spread under the driving force. The best results in the spreading of the plug are obtained when the nose is square" and the edges are fairly sharp. If the edges are beveled the tendency to spread for the same amount of driving is reduced.

At this time it is pointed out that it is neces-- sary to remove the connection from the rail in case of replacements and it is desirable that this be done without the use of special tools. This operation is made possible by the use of the solid pin which connects the terminal to the hole in the rail as indicated in the various figures. The portion of the pin which is outside the hole is much longer than the portion in the hole and when deflected sideways by the hammer it can In the various types of rail bonds described it is to be understood that the several features illustrated may be interchanged, that other types of rail attachments may be used and that the device itself, while referred to as a rail bond for insurlng the conductivity of an electric circuit around rail joints, is also applicable for making connections to the rail for any purpose. 'Any theories expressed in this specification are based upon present knowledge and appear to be supported by tests but it is understood that in the light of later knowledge these theories may be subject to modification. Certain matter divided out of this application is included in application 700,841 of December 4. 1933 and application 56,865 of December 31, 1935. Having thus described my invention, I claim: '1. In combination a rail with a cylindrical hole having a conical end, a flexible conductor and a terminal secured to the conductor, said terminal having an eyelet and a solid plug with a flat a 21 applied through the eyelet to the cylindrical rail hole, said plug being a driving fit in the eyelet and in the rail hole and said nose being softer than the body of the plug and engaging the conical end of the hole and spreading during the driving operation.

2. The method of attaching a conductor to a rail comprising drilling a hole in the rail with a conical bottom, and applying to the rail hole a plug with a driving fit having a flat nose and connected with the conductor, the flat nose of said plug being upset in the rafl hole as the plug is driven in place against the conical end of the hole.

3. In combination, a rail with a cylindrical hole having a conical end, a conductor, a plug with a fiat nose secured to the conductor and driven into the rail hole, said nose being softer than the body of the plug and being driven against the conical end of the hole.

4. In combination, a rail having a cylindrical hole with a conical end, a conductor with a terminal having an eye substantially the same diameter as the rail hole, said terminal being placed against the rail and a plug of a driving fit for the rail hole driven with a driving fit through said eye by its projecting end into the rail hole to secure the terminal to the rail and characterized by a flat nose on the end of the plug entering the rail hole which is upset in the hole where it engages the conical end of the hole.

5. In combination, a rail with a cylindrical hole having a conical end, a conductor having a terminal with an eye of substantially the same diameter as the rail hole and a plug driven with a driving fit through said eye and into the rail hole and being a driving fit in the rail hole, characterized by a flat nose on the end of the plug entering the rail hole which is upset in the hole where it I engages the conical end of the hole.

6; The method of attaching a conductor to a railway rail comprising drilling a hole in the rail with a, conical bottom, securing the conductor to a terminal and providing said terminal with a plug having a flat nose for driving into the rail hole and causing the spreading of the nose of the plug in the hole by driving it against the conical end of the hole.

7. The method of attaching a conductor toa railway rail comprising drilling a hole in the rail a terminal having an eye and driving a plug with a fiat nose through said eye and into the rail hole and causing a spreading of the nose of the plug as it is driven against the conical end of the hole.

EDWARD A. EVERETT.

with a conical bottom, securing the conductor to 

